'Like' Aeroplan on Facebook and Aeroplan will donate 10 miles to its charitable partners

MONTREAL, Nov. 20, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Aeroplan is pleased to welcome Free The Children and MusiCounts as its newest founding charitable partners in its Beyond Miles program, launching the partnerships with a donation of 1 million Aeroplan Miles to each organization. Starting today, Aeroplan Members will be able to donate miles to Free The Children and MusiCounts online at www.aeroplan.com/donate.

"We are excited to be adding these two organizations that focus on youth and education to our Beyond Miles Program," said Kevin O'Brien, Chief Commercial Officer, Aeroplan.  "Through MusiCounts, members will now be able to donate their miles to a Canadian organization that supports music education in schools across Canada and through Free The Children, members can donate their miles to the world's largest network of children helping children through education and their youth empowerment program."

Free The Children will use the miles to minimize travel costs associated with We Day, which takes place in almost every major city across Canada, and engages more than 100,000 youth in attendance on some of the most pressing social justice issues of today. The miles will also be used to support its international development activities in eight countries around the world, through which the organization has built more than 650 schools and provides daily education to more than 55,000 children in need. In addition, Aeroplan will have unique items from Free The Children, such as "We Day" tickets and exciting experiential rewards in which members can use their miles. Visit: www.aeroplan.com/activities.

"The generous miles given to us by Aeroplan and its members will support our domestic and international programming, helping to transform young people around the world into active local and global citizens," said Marc Kielburger, Founder, Free The Children.  "Aeroplan's Beyond Miles is an incredible program that enables its members to give back in a different way to support hundreds of different causes.  We are truly honoured to be part of this program."

MusiCounts, Canada's music education charity, will use Aeroplan Miles to help them in their mission to ensure that children in Canada, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, have access to music programs through their schools. MusiCounts includes Band Aid musical instrument grants, the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award, Scholarships and other music education initiatives.

"We are honoured to be joining the nine other charitable organizations in Aeroplan's Beyond Miles program, as a founding partner," said Allan Reid, Director of MusiCounts. "MusiCounts has been supporting music education in Canada for 15 years and we're thrilled to put even more instruments in the hands of children through the support of Aeroplan members who have had their own lives enriched by music."

Aeroplan also announced that starting today until December 20th; Aeroplan will donate 10 Aeroplan Miles, to be divided equally among its ten Beyond Miles founding charitable partners, for each 'Like' that Aeroplan receives on its Facebook page, and 5 miles every time one of our members "Shares" the initiative, up to a total of 1 million Aeroplan Miles.  To 'Like' Aeroplan on Facebook, please visit: www.facebook.com/aeroplan.

All miles donated for this initiative will be split equally amongst all of Aeroplan's charitable partners including: The Air Canada Foundation, Earth Day Canada, Engineers Without Borders-Canada, Free The Children, Médecins Sans Frontières-Canada, MusiCounts, Schools Without Borders, The Stephen Lewis Foundation, Veterinarians Without Borders-Canada and War Child Canada.  Each of these ten Canadian organizations is committed to improving lives and enriching communities across Canada and abroad.

Community Investment at Aeroplan
Aeroplan's Beyond Miles program invites Aeroplan Members to join us in supporting ten Canadian charitable organizations through the donation of Aeroplan Miles.  To donate miles, members simply visit www.aeroplan.com/donate.  Since the program was launched in 2006, more than 265 million Aeroplan Miles have been donated by members. Aeroplan offsets 100 per cent of all carbon emissions from flights taken by Beyond Miles partners using donated miles.  In 2012, Aeroplan donated 1 million miles to each of its partner organizations.  Aeroplan Members can also automatically donate two per cent of all miles accumulated to any Beyond Miles partner of the member's choice.  Members interested in donating two per cent of their Aeroplan Miles simply visit their profile page on aeroplan.com, select the donation opt-in and the Beyond Miles partner they would like their miles to go to.  In addition, Aeroplan also has a Charitable Pooling program that allows members to use miles to support individuals, families or local grass roots community charities in need.  More information is available at www.aeroplan.com/donate.

Aeroplan's Beyond Miles program and other community investment initiatives can now be found on Twitter.  Follow us at: http://twitter.com/BeyondMiles.

About Aeroplan
Aeroplan, Canada's premier coalition loyalty program, is owned by Aimia Inc., a global leader in loyalty management.

Aeroplan's millions of members earn Aeroplan Miles with its growing network of over 75 world-class partners, representing more than 150 brands in the financial, retail, and travel sectors.

In 2011, approximately 2.3 million rewards were issued to members including more than 1.5 million flights on Air Canada and Star Alliance carriers which offer travel to more than 1,000 destinations worldwide. In addition to flights, members also have access to over 1,000 exciting specialty, merchandise, hotel, car rental and experiential rewards. 

For more information about Aeroplan, please visit www.aeroplan.com or www.aimia.com.

SOURCE: Aeroplan